Guy

Plaintiff, a realty broker, brought this action to recover the commission earned by him in the sale of defendants’ apartment house. Judgment passed for plaintiff and defendants appeal.

The first point advanced by appellants against the judgment is more technical than meritorious. The complaint alleged and the trial court found that defendants employed plaintiff to find a purchaser for the “furniture, furnishings and equipment” of the apartment house. Defendants, who had leased the house from the owner, held a five-year lease thereon. Plaintiff, as the proof showed, was employed to find a purchaser of the lease as well as of the furniture and equipment. It now is claimed that the finding that plaintiff was employed to sell the “furniture, furnishings and equipment” is not supported" by the evidence, for the reason that plaintiff’s employment extended to the procurement of a purchaser of the lease as well as of the furniture and equipment. We can see in this objection no good reason for disturbing the judgment. The gist of plaintiff’s cause of action is the performance of certain services in bringing about a sale of defendants’ property. The fact that the allegation in the…

I dissent. In doing so it will serve no useful purpose to write an extended opinion, or one which, will more than outline my reasons.

Unquestionably the term “real estate” has been construed as of narrower or broader meaning according to the context in which it is used. This is true of words of similar application, as “conveyance” and “grant.” (San Pedro etc. R. R. Co. v. Hamilton, 161 Cal. 610 [37 L. R. A. (N. S.) 686, 119 Pac 1073 ].) According to Tiffany on Real Property, second edition, section 3, the expression “real estate” is frequently used by legislatures and courts as applying to any estate in lands. It is elementary that an estate is the interest one owns in either real or personal property; that a real estate is one whose duration is indefinite, as for life or in fee; and that interests in property of a fixed duration are personal estates. (Robinson’s Elementary Law, secs. 60 and 62.) As used in this common-law sense, “estate” is a noun, and “real” a descriptive adjective. But the words “real estate” may be so employed as to jointly constitute a term in effect a single word in the nature of a noun; and in my opinion it was the intention of the legislature to apply…